Why won't my textures work in Blender 2.76
You might have missed this step.

For every new mesh you create, you need to apply at least one material. Without
the material applied your texture panel will be empty. This is the confusing part of blender. Though it can be improved, after working with blender for a while, I find it fairly easy to use.

TAKE NOTE

There are 2 Panel you need to be aware of whilst starting to learn about material. The material panel and the textures panel are separate panels, but
they work together.

Also I am assuming that since you are a new user, you would be on Blender Internal Render engine and not cycle. Hope this helps.